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Saturday, 19 May 2012

ARF Central Committee in US condemns hate crime in Armenia as more local Dashnak MPs endorse firebombers and encourage anti-gay violence

In a strongly worded statement, US-based ARF Central Committee condemns hate crime in Armenia: "The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US Central Committee strongly condemns and deplores the recent vandalism and destruction of a business in Yerevan. We also find the incident’s root impetus of homophobia and intolerance as equally reprehensible. We believe that those responsible for this act must be brought to justice based on the letter of the law."

Asbarezreports that similar statements were made by ARF Political Affairs Director Giro Manoyan and veteran activist and Vice-President of Socialist International Maria Titizian. Moreover, reports say that "Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau member and chairman of the party’s parliamentary bloc Vahan Hovannesian said that the “ARF has no phobias,” referring to the attack, which was motivated by homophobia."

All is good. However....
"No phobias", Mr. Hovannisian? "Phobia"?.. if you put it in a very mild manner. What about your MPs, i.e. members of the very parliamentary bloc that you are chairing?

Here is the very latest example of more ARF Dashnaktsutyun MPs endorsing anti-gay violence and support firebombers.
In an interview with local media, ARF Dashnaktsutyun MP Artur Aghabekyan equates anti-gay attacks with the fight against enemy (Azerbaijan in Karabakh). He says that he is “proud and excited that there are young people who are intolerant” towards gays. He praises and “welcomes young people who do not simply ring the alarm bell but make practical steps in fighting against those who defame our national values and faith”. “With their precise actions, these two young people have shown that there are Armenians who won’t allow anyone to endanger Armenian national identity”. “We supported these young people so that our nation have a proud future”. He said he believes that all MPs from the ruling Republican party would have supported them too. In the same time, he expressed his “deep pain” with the news that leader of Heritage party went to DIY bar to offer his solidarity [Armenia Heritage ['Zharangutyun'] party leader Raffi Hovhannisyan visited DIY after hate crime attack in a show of solidarity]: “this illustrates that such political figure cannot be considered as bearer of national values”.

Typical neo-nazi fascist. Add here support of his other colleagues from both ARF and ruling Republican party, you will get the horrifying picture of terror justifiers at the very heart of the state. No wonder, Amnesty International was shocked with official Yerevan response.

Unless ARF Dashnaktsutyun addresses the issue of their disgraced MPs who support terrorists and encourage hate crime toward LGBT Armenians, all these good statements will remain insufficient and will not rectify damage done to party’s reputation.

12 comments:

Mika, I would like to drop a few links herehttp://www.facebook.com/robert.melkonyan.9/posts/156901624440497 it's a post from a high ranked police official

http://www.facebook.com/notes/giro-manoyan/%D5%AB%D5%B4-%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%B1%D5%B6%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6-%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%AF%D5%A1%D6%80-%D5%BA%D5%A1%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%BD%D5%AD%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A8-%D5%B4%D5%AB-%D5%AF%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%B3-%D5%B0%D5%A1%D6%80%D6%81%D5%AB/3602729260214 - and this is a post from Kiro Manoyan